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NEWS

Vermont Votes for Kids teaches youngsters importance of voting

By Matthew Poitras
Norwich Guidon Staff Writer

Members of Kristie Bush’s Union Elementary School fifth grade class gather on the front steps of the school to help launch Vermont Votes for Kids, a program designed to teach students the importance of voting. (photo courtesy of Ken Jones)

Declining poll numbers in 18 to 24-year-old voters sparked a new school-based civics education program, which was designed for kids by the Vermont Secretary of State’s office to help youngsters understand the voting process. Fifth graders at Union Elementary School in Montpelier, Vt., got first-hand experience about how voting works in the United States.

Vermont Votes for Kids provides free resources for students and educators through the program’s web site.

Janel Johnson, the Voter Education Coordinator, oversees the program for Vermont Secretary of State Deb Markowitz.

“One of the reasons Deb Markowitz wants this program is because civics education in general is not part of the normal curriculum, anymore, and that has effects,” Johnson said.

One of those effects, according to Johnson, is a 32 percent turnout of 18 to 24-year-olds at the polls.

“The main reason given for the 18 to 24 year olds not voting is that they don’t understand how to do it,” Johnson said. “Part of the mantra of this whole program is voting is easy. Your vote is your voice; you’ve got to use it.”

There are 30 downloadable lesson plans on the web site, such as Voting Makes a Better Society and Making Your Point, Asking Your Question, which provoke kindergarteners and twelfth graders alike to think about democracy and their role in it.

Kristie Bush, a fifth grade teacher at Union Elementary School and board member to a previous youth voting campaign, uses the lessons to teach her students, “To become good citizens.

“They’re the backbone of my program,” Bush said. “They give you ideas, and you just change them and adapt them to the kids’ needs.”

Free activity books, videos, and other materials supplement the lesson plans.

Johnson says the “culmination of all the lessons in the curriculum” is the Mock Election, where students cast their votes after weeks of learning. The election results are posted on the web site.

“We really encourage the teachers when possible to hold the mock elections at the polling places in town on the actual election day,” Johnson said. “When kids need to go to the polls on election day for school, they might bring their parents, who might not otherwise vote.”

The students in Bush’s class were among the 50,000 students who cast their mock ballots on election day, but they are still learning about the candidates and democracy through the lesson plans.

“The kids have definite opinions,” Bush said, “and it’s really neat to see that come out.” Bush said it is important that her students, “Know that they need to learn about the candidates, and not just go with their parents’ views.”

One way Bush’s students did this was by researching local and presidential candidates through magazines and the Internet, and creating posters about them. Bush said that even though her students are, “Only 10 years old, they do know a lot.”

Markowitz tested that knowledge when she visited the schools through her Wheel of Democracy.

“In each of the slots of the wheel are questions about elections and democracy,” Johnson said. “They get a pencil or a pin if they get the question right.”

Bush said that when Markowitz visited Union Elementary recently, Bush’s students knew all the answers to the questions on the Wheel of Democracy.

“They said, ‘We know this, because we’ve been studying this a lot,’” Bush said. “That made me feel good, that they felt good about knowing the answers.”

Vermont Votes For Kids is not the first youth voting program Markowitz has tried.

“Deb Markowitz did something like this two years ago, and four years ago, called Kids Voting USA,” Johnson said, adding that the program is still running, but it had too many requirements that Markowitz felt, “Made it difficult for teachers,” so she tried something different this year.

“Deb decided that the curriculum that Washington State was using was really great, so we had a consultant revise that for Vermont,” Johnson explained, “Adapting it for our educational standards. We’re going to use this every time, every election season.”

Vermont Secretary of State Deb Markowitz joined students at Montpelier’s Union Elementary School to help launch the Vermont Votes for Kids program. (Photo courtesy of Ken Jones)

“We really hit big on the presidential elections,” Bush said. “We do a lot more, but we touch base on elections every year.”

Johnson said the goal of the program is to teach children how to be, “An active participant in our democracy.

“Part of the push, in addition to working with the K through 12 students, is getting the twelfth grade students, who are eligible to register to vote, to actually register and vote,” Johnson said.

While the high schools have their own programs to do that, Bush’s fifth graders also help out. “I ran across an idea for the kids to make birthday cards for the high school seniors who are turning 18 before the election,” Bush said. “We sent them a letter and a birthday card to encourage them to vote.”

Johnson said they measure the success of the program through feedback from teachers, such as Bush, and by determining whether higher turnout at some polls is linked to the result of Vermont Votes for Kids running in their school district.

The students who participated in Vermont Votes for Kids should, “Leave this program knowing more about what values our democratic society is founded on,” Johnson said, “and how they can carry on those values in their actions today.”

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